Independent journalism on fracking, onshore oil and gas and the reactions to it

Lorry protest outside Lancs fracking site nears 60 hours

Lorry protest on Preston New Road, 27 July 2017. Photo: Gathering Place Films

An anti-fracking protester has been on top of a lorry near Cuadrilla’s shale gas site near Blackpool for more than 58 hours.

He climbed on top of a vehicle delivering to the site at 8am on Tuesday morning (25 July 2017).

Another protester climbed onto a separate lorry about three hours later and has been there since. A third man joined the protest at 6am on Wednesday morning (26 July 2017) and is now into his 36th hour.

The trucks are parked on Preston New Road, west of the site entrance and are thought to be transporting heavy equipment, possibly associated with the drilling rig. This was delivered at about 4am today in breach of a condition of Cuadrilla’s planning permission. (DrillorDrop report)

Lorry protest on Preston New Road, 27 July 2017. Photo: Gathering Place Films

Lorry protest on Preston New Road, 27 July 2017. Photo: Gathering Place Films

Police have used ladders to talk to the three men but there is no sign that they are willing to come down.

Lorry protest on Preston New Road, 27 July 2017. Photo: Reclaim the Power

The anti-fracking group, Reclaim the Power, said three other people taking part in the protest, known as lorry surfing, had been arrested, as had three people sitting in front of a lorry.

Within the past few minutes, police released two protesters who had locked themselves to a car outside the site entrance. Another pair were released from a separate car earlier today.

Protester released by police from a lock-on protest in a car, 27 July 2017. Photo: Reclaim the Power

Reclaim the Power have certainly been a catalyst-but not in the way that was hoped for. Even some of the antis saw this coming, but were unwilling or unable to do anything about it. Hey ho, it will make every other site more straight forward.

Jonathan, by your logic the economy could be shut down by protesters. You can protest anything and any business, so if you are free to trample on others’ rights to demonstrate your cause, then the economy can be closed by protests.

There are laws in place to stop actions such as the ones mentioned in this article. It is a matter of time before they are enforced.

If you spent a day at PNR you would see the overwhelming support from the cars and vans and wagons , even when they have been inconvenienced . Any decent sentient person who did their homework is against this inherently unsafe , toxic polluting industry .It is a Ponzi scheme , Lord Howell talked about the Desolate North , he thought it was the North East .This apology of a human being hadn’t even bothered to find out which part of the country was to be a sacrifice zone .

Do some research my young man and do a recall on your memory…”rule of law” and “rights of others”?…where did the people’s rights go when our self-serving government overturned a democratically determined decision by a COUNTY council representing the whole of Lancashire? And note how many Tory ministers are financially connected to the fracking companies…conflict of interest or just plain old-fashioned corruption? The government and fracking industry have already broken the ‘rule of law’…rules and laws that dictate the process of democracy…rules and laws that dictate environmental protections…rules and laws that dictate human rights protections…go look at the facts of fracking in the USA just for starters…contaminated drinking water (verified by a US government-funded study and report), air and crop-growing soils…each contributing to serious debilitating diseases including cancers…at least 300 doctors in Pennsylvania and North Dakota have pleaded with the state government to stop fracking…Also why would France, Germany, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, New York State…and many many more countries and US States ban or suspend fracking? C’mon, open your mind…has your government and the frackers informed you about this?
One final piece of advice: the word ‘anarchy’ means: “…absence of government and absolute freedom of the individual, regarded as a political ideal…”…so your assumption regarding professional protestors being ‘happy to live in a state of anarchy..’ would be appropriate since we do not have a democratic government.

david j man, I believe it is you who needs to do some research. Start with the “social contract” and continue on through “representative democracy.” The council was overruled by a higher, but no less democratic, authority. Far more voters elected the Tory majority than the local council. And your claims about contaminated drinking water and soils are inaccurate. I live in the US and I have read all of the independent research and these unequivocally back the idea that fracking can be undertaken safely, and that there is NO evidence of systemic contamination. Your “studies” are nothing but anti-fracking funded propaganda – they don’t pass for real science and they don’t support your claims. Oil and gas operations have had accidents which resulted in limited contamination for a short period, but those accidents are rare and are almost non-existent now that the industry follows best practices and is better regulated. Do some homework, man!

Jeezo you are even worse than me lol! The professional protestors are verging on communist style guerillas minus the weapons, so far it has been pretty harmless, I hope they remain calm when they realise they have lost their little war. I don’t want anyone on any side to get physically injured that is why I advocate legal protesting.

[Edited by moderator – this is a response to a comment which has been removed] ]Peter. What a shame that you have no understanding of the gravity of this fight to save our beautiful planet. I am in Australia and we are fighting fracking as well. I would gladly give my life to stop it right now [Edited by moderator]